Washington, DC – The Government Accountability Project (GAP) today released the “Vaughn Report,” commissioned by the World Bank as a blueprint to modernize that institution’s inadequate whistleblower protection policies. The recommendations of noted whistleblower law scholar Robert Vaughn of American University Law School incorporate “best practices” that were already adopted by the United Nations, approved by the Organization of American States to implement its Inter-American Convention Against Corruption, and enacted last fall as U.S. policy to strengthen anti-corruption efforts at all multilateral development banks (MDBs). The full report can be viewed here: Vaughn_Report_Part1 Vaughn_Report_Part2
In the nine months since the World Bank received this blueprint for reform, it has refused to publicly release the report, consult staff on Vaughn’s recommendations, or accept any offers from experts to help implement Vaughn’s analysis. The World Bank rejected a direct request from U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) who oversees the Treasury Department’s funding of and participation at the MDBs. Senator Grassley is widely recognized as the conscience of whistleblowers in the Senate. Senator Grassley reached out to new World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, calling on him to join in the battle to prevent waste, fraud and abuse. All of this continues the pattern of the World Bank rhetorically promoting transparency while maintaining secrecy on management proposals to combat corruption.
By contrast, during the same nine months, the United Nations has involved its staff and called on GAP for advice in rewriting its whistleblower policies. In doing so, the United Nations has implemented many of the recommended “best practices” in a policy that took effect on January 1, 2006. The United Nations leads by example – not only in content and commitment to reform, but in implementing an inclusive and transparent process.
Of the 22 major recommendations that the 43-page Vaughn report outlines, the following are some of the reforms most imperative to align the World Bank and other MDBs with international best practices:
• Whistleblower protection should extend to all Bank staff, including former and temporary employees, consultants and contractors. (Recommendation One; Pages 8-10)
Currently, the World Bank does not adequately protect even staff members from retaliation, let alone the wider network of informed individuals who may witness corruption and abuse in the management of development funds. Freedom of expression must apply to all individuals making lawful internal or external disclosures about actions that threaten the Bank’s mission, as is currently the case at the United Nations.
• Employees must have the ability to report directly to multiple authorities, including the Bank’s board. This action should be permitted and encouraged. (Recommendations Four, Five; Pages 13-15)
Presently, the World Bank does not allow its employees to report misconduct to anyone independent of management. Not only are Bank whistleblowers prevented from taking disclosures directly to the board, but employees are under penalty of termination for reporting to external law enforcement authorities or to overseeing legislative bodies such as Congress. By contrast, under U.N. rules, reporting to external authorities and the public is protected.
• The independence of the Bank’s investigative unit, the Department of Institutional Integrity (INT), must be ensured by having it report directly to the Bank board and subject to external evaluation. (Recommendations 7, 9; Pages 17-19)
Corrupt practices can never be curtailed unless an organization’s fact-finding function is independent. GAP has uncovered repeated examples where INT has been misused by management to instigate investigations of the whistleblower rather than the whistleblower’s evidence of corruption, thus chilling the entire environment for truth-telling. Changing leadership cannot overcome the inherent structural conflicts of interest.
• Criteria for protected disclosures and prohibited retaliation must be standardized based on existing and tested U.S. and international norms (Recommendation 8; Pages 17-18)
The definitions for protected disclosures, banned retaliation, and permissible audiences have been standardized in legal instruments under the International Labor Organization, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the OAS Model Whistleblower Law and the U.S. Whistleblower Protection Act. The World Bank needs only to apply these definitions to its own operations.
• Standards of proof of retaliation must be adopted and applied placing the burden on the Bank to prove that its representatives have not retaliated when whistleblowers report harassment and professional reprisal. (Recommendations 12-13; Pages 21-24)
The Vaughn report recommends standards identical to those adopted by the U.N., O.A.S. and U.S. Whistleblower Protection Act, among others. With the adoption of the new MDB reform law, it is now US policy to ensure that all banks apply modern legal burdens of proof to protect whistleblowing. They ban actions taken when whistleblowing is relevant to dismissal or other alleged reprisal, unless management can prove it would have taken the same action had the individual been silent. They further require that where there is retaliation, the whistleblower must be “made whole” and the retaliator punished. Without benefit of these standards, no witness to wrongdoing in these public institutions is safe from retaliation.
• Due process rights must be accessible and enforceable. In the absence of a credible and binding internal adjudicatory alternative, access to an external adjudicative body separate from the Bank is necessary to pursue claims of retaliation for whistleblowing. Until such a forum is available, current administrative conflict resolution mechanisms must be reformed to operate on due process norms and must be given the power to issue “make whole” remedies, including special attention to the unique vulnerabilities of visa holders. (Recommendations 17, 18, 19, 20, 21; Pages 27-35).
Fundamental due process by an impartial and public tribunal is enshrined in international law and the law of most nations. The Vaughn Report advocates modernizing procedural rights for internal appeals, and adding the option for binding external arbitration. These rights include: being represented by counsel, a formalized discovery process for relevant evidence, open hearings, bringing witnesses forward, decisions in writing with detailed reasoning, and a balanced and incorruptible process for selection of tribunal members. GAP strongly endorses replacing the existing appeals committee and administrative tribunal and “pathways of disclosure” with alternative dispute mechanisms external to the Bank where both parties determine the decision-makers by a strike and mutual consent process (like jury selection), and the parties share the costs of the process.
“This is exactly the right message and the right time for the World Bank to turn over a new leaf. It’s terrific that these accountability reforms are outlined by an internal World Bank report,” stated Melanie Beth Oliviero, GAP International Program Director. “Now both external and internal assessments have shown the World Bank the correct path to ensure against fraud and corruption. With new management in place, it is opportune for the World Bank to enact this plan. By doing so it can rise to meet existing intergovernmental organization standards.”
The primary way for the Bank and other MDBs to demonstrate effective leadership in preventing abuse and corruption is to institute responsible channels for reporting wrongdoing, as the United Nations has already done. Professor Vaughn’s expertise on crafting responsible and effective whistleblower protection has repeatedly been sought by U.S. government agencies. His presentations on the subject span scholarly journals, U.S. State Department guides and hearings before Congress. The Bank should take his recommendations seriously.
Oliviero continued, “Until the current climate of repression and retaliation that prevails across all the multilateral development banks changes, neither the Bank’s poverty alleviation mission, nor its aspirations to lead anti-corruption efforts can be achieved.”
Contact: Dylan Blaylock, Communications Director
Phone: 202.408.0034 ext. 137, cell 202.236.3733
Email: [email protected]
Government Accountability Project
The Government Accountability Project is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection organization. Through litigating whistleblower cases, publicizing concerns and developing legal reforms, GAP’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. Founded in 1977, GAP is a non-profit, non-partisan advocacy organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, WA.
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